with a little bit of sheepishness...

So around 2:30am on Saturday, I was still up, watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls, until I realized what time it was, and thought, "what am I doing?!" As I was praying before falling asleep, I believe God said something rather specific. I wrote it down in my journal, and labeled it "A Bit of Mentalness."

I want it to be true. I want to believe God said what I thought He said. Yet it seems so... improbable, if not impossible.

But there it is.

And then there's this:

As I was praying on Saturday, and again on Sunday, while walking into church to lead worship this weekend, God told me very specifically that I was going to break a guitar string at the end of the last song during the last service. And sure enough...

All I could do at that point was just grin, and finish the last few bars of the song.

And He whispered to my heart: "Hap... My sheep know My voice."

So time will tell... but I'm hanging on to Psalm 27:14 with a relatively ludicrous amount of joy and looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings. I think the next three months are going to be a lot of fun. A friend of mine reminded me last night of something I wrote on his magnetic wall a few months ago: "a merry season is near, though to get there the way may not always be easy. believe it." (hey, you do what you can with refrigerator magnets.)

looking forward to... well, Christmas. :) (and now i want peppermint pie.... sigh ... 9 more months. i can wait. really.)

5:00AM Devos: Thankfulness - Day 4

11:13am Devos... somehow, it just doesn't have the same ring...
Ah, well.

Thankfulness - Day 4

"Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker..." Psalm 95:6

Perhaps I am thinking about this because of Sacred Space, or perhaps it's because it's after 11:00am on a Sunday morning and I am curled up in bed with a third cup of coffee and still in my pajamas and having a rather worshipful morning not being at church... but today I am thankful for worship.

I am thankful for all the things that worship is: an act of adoration, an acknowledgment of God's greatness, a recognition that my life is not about me, that this Story into which I'm living isn't mine to write, but that it's His...

I am thankful for all the ways in which my worship can be expressed - curled up in bed under a pile of blankets on a snowy winter morning with a cup of coffee and a slice of peppermint pie (wait a minute, slice? no, tell the truth, Hap... you took the box out of the fridge and a fork out of the drawer...!) writing about worship; dancing sockfoot in a church sanctuary, singing at the top of my lungs, painting, or even choosing to slow down for a second and just breathe, remembering Emmanuel...

and I am thankful for all the things that worship isn't - or doesn't require...

5:00am Devos: Thankfulness - Day 1

My friend Rachel has tagged me in a meme, 5 Things I'm Thankful For. It was kicked off a couple of weeks ago by John over at SmuloSpace, and is still going strong.

When Rachel tagged me, she said (and I quote): "can't help it, I think it might be a blessing for you right now!"

She's right.

So I am answering the tag, but I am also going to stretch it out a bit, because I need more than one day to be thankful. So at least for the next 5 days, there will be thankfulness posts.

I had this brilliant idea a few days ago that for all of December I would try to do a 5:00am devo post. (note the sarcasm and irony in that word: brilliant.) This idea did not take into consideration the opportunity to sleep in on weekends, nor my general inability to function that early in the morning, nor the fact that I probably won't have access to email long enough to post over the Christmas hols... still, I think 5:00am Devos sounds like a good title for a series, so here goes - and it is 5:00am somewhere for some whale in the Pacific Ocean... speaking of which (tangent), Greenpeace is holding a vote to name the whales in a pod they've been following, and so far the name of choice is Mister Splashy Pants. Please go vote, and stop the madness... :)

Thankfulness - Day 1

Psalm 1:1-3 - "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." (NIV)

I am thankful for time - both kairos and chronos:

for new seasons, new days, new weeks, new years, new beginnings of many sorts

for the changes that time brings: to the earth, to life, to us

for the patterns by which we mark it: for holidays, for liturgy

for the ability to look back and see where we've been and how we've grown and changed, to both learn from our mistakes and celebrate His victories

for God's patience and love shown through time - His forbearance with us, and the delay of His return so that as many might know Him as possible - tho so much of my soul cries, please come soon! and that is good and right as well...

and for today, December 1st - which is the first day that Baker's Square will have their candy cane pie - and you can bet that I'm going to go get one. :)

I tag: Rob, Sara, Kevin, Amy, and Josh.

1. Post 5 things you are thankful for
2. Tag 5 friends to take part also
3. Link back to John's post (optional) and encourage others to leave a link in his comments section back to their completed post as well.